Help Us Educate Poor Kids In INDIA (Unique Mobile Platform Approach)

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Story

Being educated is one of the key factors that makes an individual, their families and nations progress. Most kids who belong to underprivileged families don't get adequate education today.

HELP us launch HEM (Hands-On Education & Mentoring) platform that will enable thousands of these kids become capable of supporting themselves and their families in years to come!

Overview:

Even in the urban cities of India, many kids who belong to underprivileged families don't get the opportunity to attend a school as their parents cannot afford tuition fees. And those who go to a public or private school often have too many students in their class so the teacher is unable to provide proper education and attention to an individual student. Only a handful of these kids are getting personal attention from volunteers (private citizens) who teach them in the evenings or over the weekends.

Good news is that there are many people (retired adults, young professionals and even students) who want to help, however today most don't.

Why?

Current challenges with private tutoring:

1. Only a few private citizens volunteer, as most are not able to make upfront commitments due to busy schedules.

2. There is no easy way to connect those who want to volunteer to teach with kids who need private tuition (usually people teach kids of their domestic helpers only on an infrequent basis).

3. Even volunteers who are teaching kids on a regular basis have challenges as frequently kids miss classes (e.g. parents need kid to stay back and help at home) and such kids are left behind which makes it hard for both the teacher and the student.

4. Many times kids forget to bring their books which creates inconsistency in content being taught and resulting in a lot of time being wasted.

5. Often kids jump from one teacher to another (e.g. original teacher is on vacation or stopped volunteering) and it takes a lot of time for the new teacher to determine what the kid has already learnt and what to teach next (again time wasted for everyone in the class).

What if all these & other challenges can be addressed and a lot more kids can be educated by a lot more volunteers?

Solution:

A centralized managed platform that connects volunteers (teachers) with kids within close geographical proximity, brings consistency in teaching content, tracks student progress, is customized for local needs (e.g. languages) and gradually expands from city-to-city and then globally!

Since most people now have a smart phone, the volunteer (teacher and sign-up team) will utilize a mobile app leveraging inherent capabilities of mobile and web to make their volunteering easier and on a short notice/low commitment basis.

Students will carry a unique ID card and present to the teacher every time they attend a private tuition (QR code on the ID card will retrieve student respective data with up-to-date information).

And kids' parents will frequently get text messages with progress updates and other relevant notifications which will encourage them to keep their kids in the HEM program.

(See PLATFORM APPROACH TO PRIVATE TUTORING for more details)

Note: click and hold the image to enlarge view your mobile phone.

What will your contribution be used for?

It is anticipated that within the first year of launch, HEM (Hands-On Education & Mentoring) platform will provide children with free, high quality and relevant education with the system cost of less than Rs. 10/- a month per student.

Your contribution will go towards development and deployment of the HEM platform, hiring 1-2 program managers to sign-up teachers and students (underprivileged kids) to the HEM program for test launch.

Over time the HEM program will grow through word-of-mouth/ social sharing, private donations & corporate sponsorships.

The inspiration of this idea came from watching my mother teach kids at our home in Noida and observing how fulfilling it is to teach young kids and how much the opportunity (for both volunteers and underprivileged kids) can be expanded with the help of technology.

PS: If you would like to learn more about how to be a team leader for introducing the HEM program in your city, or become a volunteer - please contact us for more details.